This invention relates to vending machine rotors. Vending machine rotors are widely used to hold and dispense products from vending machines. More particularly, this invention relates to vending machine rotors which are used to hold and dispense bottled products such as spring water from vending machines originally designed for the dispensing of canned beverages such as soft drinks, cold teas, and fruit drinks.
Generally speaking, vending machine rotors are substantially cylindrically shaped cradles which contain one or more compartments and which are positioned such that their axes lie substantially in a horizontal plane of a vending machine between columns of products and a dispensing chute. These rotors operate by rotating about their axes so that their compartments move from loading positions, where products are loaded from the columns of products, to dispensing positions, where products are dispensed into the dispensing chute. Usually, the loading positions of the vending machine rotors are at the point of their rotation where their compartments' openings are facing straight upward. In these positions, goods are usually dropped into the rotors' compartments from the columns of goods positioned directly above the rotors. The dispensing positions of the rotors are usually the position where their compartments' openings are facing straight downward. In these positions, goods are usually dropped out of the rotors' compartments into the dispensing chute from which a customer can retrieve the vended goods.
In the prior art, such vending machine rotors have been used for the holding and dispensing of a variety of canned goods and foodstuffs. For example, Lea U.S. Pat. No. 1,694,599 shows using a vending machine rotor to hold and dispense can shaped products, and Massie U.S. Pat. No. 1,729,886 shows using a vending machine rotor to hold and dispense fruit. Similarly, Romanoski U.S. Pat. No. 2,156,196, Larson U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,657, Payne U.S. Pat. No. 3,424,345, and Oden U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,138 also show vending machine rotors for holding and dispensing hard boiled eggs, produce, and canned goods.
Many widely used vending machines contain vending machine rotors which are each configured to hold and dispense three standard twelve ounce soft drink cans. These rotors are designed so that the soft drink cans are held in equal spacing along the length of the rotor's axis, and so that each can is dispensed with a progressive rotation of the rotor from one or more loading positions through each of three dispensing positions.
With the recent popularity of bottled water, there is a need for a vending machine rotor which allows 16.9 ounce water bottles to be dispensed in the vending machines that have been designed to operate with rotors used to dispense three standard twelve ounce soft drink cans. Furthermore, it is also desirable that the new rotors be designed so that they may only be used for the dispensing of 16.9 ounce water bottles to promote the continued availability of water bottles in these vending machines.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a vending machine rotor which allows for the dispensing of bottled products.
It would also be desirable to provide a vending machine rotor which allows for the dispensing of two 16.9 ounce bottles and which is substantially the same size as rotors used to dispense three standard twelve ounce soft drink cans.
It would be further desirable to provide a vending machine rotor which allows for the dispensing of bottled products and which restricts the bottles that may be dispensed using the rotor to bottles which do not exceed a predetermined size.